#this is heavily off topic for what i usually post. but here we are

[sp1derc1der]

I might be cringe, but I am free

So I made a fursona after my brain screamed at me to make a fairy-bread inspired dog. And that’s what I did.

I’m gonna need some name ideas for this lady. Oh, and one more thing: her markings can be drawn in any way

[genericpuff]

CHAD ANON-

Alright so I've been meaning to post about this for a couple days, but we gotta talk about what's been going on in the /r/webtoons subreddit the last couple days.

Every now and then, the heavens part and an anonymous creator will descend with their experiences with Webtoons. And they're almost never good. And that's good in the long run, because that means we have more ammunition to support Webtoons being an ass platform that benefits no one :))

Obviously the anons here are risking a lot posting this sort of stuff, so before I go ahead, let it be known that I'm gonna try and keep speculating to a minimum and just touch on what anon has provided. When it comes down to it, this post hasn't been verified in any way, so it might not even be 100% real, though there's a lot of evidence to suggest it is based on the responses from other users that validate many of the points anon makes.

I will also mention that any opinion I have regarding the contract outside of what's been provided by anon is from reading other accounts from creators who have spoken up and just generally being a community member for a long time who's been around the bend and heard a lot of shit from Originals creators. I am not an Originals creator and I have never been offered any of these contracts.

So let's get into this!

The contract 'evolving' over time was definitely something that a lot of us were at least semi-aware of, as it seems that a lot has changed since 2020 as verified by many creators who have spoken up on their contracts (or at least said what they could in light of the NDA's that WT uses to prevent them from saying anything). But I had no idea the extent to how far WT was going with it, how much they were trying to get away with. Automatically having the ability to buy 100% of the creator's IP? That is a huge, massive no-no. I've had some creators heavily imply to me in the past that they've sold off portions of their IP, but WT being given the automatic pass to buy 100% is severely unethical.

For anyone out of the loop, IP means Intellectual Property. It means whatever content is being made, it belongs to the person making it. Lore Olympus is Rachel Smythe's IP. City of Blank is 66's IP. Of course, copyright law gets dicier when it comes to stuff like fair use, trademarking, etc. but for the sake of this topic, IP just means "if you made it, you own it". Webtoons typically buys digital print rights, meaning if you sign on as an Originals, that means you can only post that comic that you sold to the Originals section. It doesn't mean you can't use other platforms for other comics, just that for the comic you sold, you have to post exclusively to Webtoons.

Webtoons is essentially trying to take that from creators by going "if you sign on as an Originals creator, you don't just lose your distribution rights, you lose all of your rights." They might still be able to run Canvas comics separate from Originals, but whatever they sold to Originals is no longer theirs to own. And the kicker is that it's, of course, for a very low fee. Buying out 100% of someone's IP should NOT come cheap, but WT is undoubtedly offering pennies in the hope that someone bites for that 'exclusive' Originals offer.

This. This is a big one. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure this is massively ILLEGAL.

Just like with the IP rights, creators should not automatically have their printing rights taken from them by a digital publisher. They can make offers, sure, but they can't force creators into giving up their rights for physical publishing when they themselves are not a physical publishing house. Some series do get physical prints through other publishers like Random House (ex. LO) but a digital printing platform should NOT be able to restrict the printing rights of a creator who has only sold their series for the purpose of digital distribution. Especially because, again, printing rights are usually sold for massive gains for the person selling them - not a portion of month's rent for people living in a shitty New York apartment in 2024. That is what Webtoons thinks your printing rights are worth.

This is one that I've been very certain of for the past little while, particularly due to my past discussions regarding LO's merch. Because let's face it... it isn't good.

But I don't hold Rachel accountable for this shit because she's not the one making it, it's almost certainly some in-house designer at Webtoons or some other third party through Random House Worlds. Sure, it says "By Rachel Smythe" but that's more so just for marketing at this point, because no one wants to buy merch made by Chuck the Penguin House merch guy.

Remember when I said LO's partnership with Inklore / Random House Worlds was gonna be purely for cheap merchandise in the realm of cookbooks and card decks?

Yeah.

Point is, it's clear a lot of creators who are part of Webtoons' merch program may not even have any say or choice in the matter. Of course, I don't know what Rachel's contracts specifically are like, so I won't speculate on that too much, but there's a lot of evidence to suggest that she may not own as much of LO as she used to. She was definitely a part of the older contracts from 2018 at one point that didn't have the more predatory tacked on bullshit like the Minimum Revenue Threshold, but... she's renewed her contract since then. So it begs the question of how much LO has suffered not just on her account of being bad at managing a team and writing a long-form story, but at the hands of Webtoons dipping too much of their hands into her work.

Oh look, another highly unethical if not outright illegal thing! Digital print publishers can't be your agent! Repeat after me -digital print publishers CANNOT be your agent! As anon explains here, it would make it far too easy for publishers to steer their creators into directions that only benefit the company. Agents are like lawyers for artists, their job is to protect writers, actors, artists, anyone who's trying to enter some kind of media industry. Most publishing agencies won't take unsolicited manuscripts for publishing, which means writers need agents who are willing to vouch for them and help them connect with publishers. Webtoons being the publisher AND the agent for creators... seriously, that's fucked up. It means Webtoons can direct creators to do whatever benefits the company itself, not the creator. But hey, we already knew that was the case as soon as we saw "Webtoon would be able to automatically buy 100% of your IP" LOL But if you needed more to support the sheer predatory audacity of Webtoons as a company, there it is.

This is the sad reality for a lot of content creators. Comics aren't a new industry, but webcomics are and a lot of the people going into them are either extremely young or just never learned how to navigate the professional world. We talked about this issue last week and now here it is in action - a lot of creators don't even realize they're supposed to hire lawyers for contracts like these, and those who do... can't afford them.

And again, I'm very aware that this reddit post isn't exactly substantiated by anything beyond anon anecdote (such as a copy of the actual contract) but a couple other people in the thread who were offered contracts also came forward to express the similarities - and differences - between what they were offered and what OP was offered.

(these responses are actually gone now but that's why we have the power of screenshotting as the thread was happening LMAO yay me)

This thread is also being discussed on Twitter:

For those who are as old and falling apart as I am (/hj) and remember when Youtube was still coming into its own as a platform, what Webtoons is doing to webcomic creators is very similar to what businesses like MakerStudios did to Youtubers back in the day - signing creators into predatory contracts with the promise of fame and fortune, just to pull the rug out from under them with shit pay, shit management, and less perks than they had just doing it all on their own time and dime.

Webcomics, as a blooming industry, are now going through the same problem as Youtube did back in the late 2000's/early 2010's. No one knows how to navigate the industry. A lot of people and businesses don't even know how to profit off it, at least not sustainably (and for some platforms definitely not ethically). Very few people have come out of this industry with the money and fame they were seeking in the long-term, both because it's easy to burn out quickly but also because there is no long-term yet due to this being such a new industry... and those who have come out with those victories are often people who are still just pursuing the traditional comic publishing ways of glory, by seeking out agents, signing print deals, and doing everything that any other freelance or contracted comic creator would do, because it's safer and offers more structure than what webcomics are offering on their own. There are no regulations, no protections in place looking out for creators, it's basically just a free for all of young people looking to monetize their creations and businesses willing to take advantage of those people for a quick buck.

I don't think any of this means that webcomics have to be exclusively relegated to being a "stepping stone" for traditional print comics or grander media like film and television. They're a medium in and of themselves, a very accessible medium to boot, that welcomes anyone regardless of their status, technical skills, or background. They're wonderful for that and I think more people should be willing to give webcomics a try as a medium if they want to express themselves on their own terms.

But as I've talked about in the past time and time again, there's still going to be a separation between doing webcomics as a passion project or a hobby, and doing them as a profession. When it comes to the latter, you have to be willing to treat it professionally. You have to recognize that there will be those out there who will take advantage of you for money, because that's what the professional world is all about. This is unfortunately something a lot of creators just don't realize, because we're going through those same growing pains a lot of Youtubers have gone through (and still go through) - learning how to navigate our passion as a job, with all of the legal mess, dotted lines, and legal stipulations that come with it. And we're in the midst of that learning now, by seeing the actions of companies like Webtoons that only seek to exploit creators rather than foster them. It unfortunately will take more creators getting screwed over before anything changes. But we have to be willing to talk about it, every single time. We have to be willing to separate the creator and their own faults from the faults of the platform that's hosting them - a creator can be both lacking in their own skills as a creator as well as lacking in support which makes it impossible for them to hone those skills.

And yes, I say all of this because it concerns the criticisms I make of creators like Rachel Smythe. I think there are a lot of things she does that are indicative of her as a creator and her inability to act professionally in this industry, from LO's rampant misogyny and objectification of women to her own misfires when interacting with her fandom. But there are also just as many things that can be potentially traced back to the platform - it's hard to make better content when you're constantly being exploited and hung out to dry.

Like anon, I too hope that more creators will be willing to stand up and speak on behalf of themselves and their peers, to push back against these contracts. It's gonna suck. It's gonna be hard to want to make those moves when just about every creator is just trying to put food on the table. But for every anonymous creator who stands up and speaks, for every person who isn't willing to sign those contracts and talk about the reasons why, for every storyteller who uses their skills to spread the message, the power they have grows. We have to make it impossible for Webtoons to continue to ignore.

After all, it would be a real shame for more of these stories to come to light just as Webtoons is seeking an initial public offering in the stock market. Wouldn't that just be so unfortunate for them? :)

[eddiezpaghetti]

It has come to my attention that SOME OF YOU who read my last Byler post remain UNCONVINCED. So I'm gonna tack onto it this:

I'm older than fucking God and air, and I've been out and proud since 2007. Yes, I know what homophobia is, and yes, I know what queerbaiting is. I know about Supernatural and Teen Wolf and Sherlock and blahdyblahdyblah. No new ground is being covered here. I thought I made that clear in the original post, but, clearly, I did not.

I am aware of queerbaiting and homophobia, and I'm still wholeheartedly certain in Byler being canon anyway.

Okay, so there are three types of relationship I want to discuss when it comes to queerbaiting. They're all, like, "queer relationships that could have happened, but didn't".

First off, queer-coding. This isn't really a thing so much anymore, but it still crops up every once in a while. I'd argue it probably happens most with male-male relationships in family shows these days. First example that comes to mind is Mr. Smiley and Mr. Frowny from Steven Universe. You can't make a relationship canon because some shitty overhead bastard overhead said no, so you get as close as you can without compromising the show. Can't make someone gay? Well, now their comedy routine is a blatant allegory for a romantic relationship. Boom-shaka-laka. This is something I don't see being a problem with regards to Stranger Things, but I want it to be there as contrast, a demonstration of one of many things queerbaiting is not. However, one could argue that, thus far, Will Byers is, canonically, queer-coded. It's pretty fucking heavily implied in the show, and the creators have confirmed it, and you're gonna be able to see it if you're not FUCKING BLIND, but word of god is not technically canon which means that interviews don't technically make something canon, blahdyblahdyblahdyblah, technicalities, Robin has been explicitly stated in the text to be queer while Will has, thus far, not, outside of good ol' Show-Don't-Tell. Of course, anyone with two brain cells to rub together can tell that that's going to change by the end of Season 5, but, hey, for what it's worth, I'm throwing this out there.

Alrighty, Thingamajingama Number Two: "Oops, I accidentally made the greatest love story known to man." AKA, a genuine, honest-to-goodness mistake. Unfortunately, we do live in a heteronormative society. Sometimes people who don't think about being gay much write a friendship that's incredibly compelling and don't even consider the possibility that it could have been read as romantic. Something something Top Gun something. This is, again, not queerbaiting. This is Steddie, this is Ronance, this is Elmax, this is your favorite flavor of non-canon ship this week, this is not Byler. The creators know DAMN well what they're doing. They've talked about it. We know this. Nothing new here.

Which brings us to the topic of discussion here. Actual queerbaiting. This usually starts out as an "accidental greatest love story", and then reacts to fan response. And when I say "reacts", I mean like a goddamn chemical reaction. Like bleach and ammonia, bitch. It's noxious and it's gonna kick your fucking ass without mercy. This is when a creator is like, "Hey, let's get our queer audience invested, but we're not actually going to give them what they want because our straight audience isn't here for that/we personally think it's gross/we don't give enough of a shit to want to research a goddamn thing to write a real gay character," blah blah blah whatever excuse they want to come up with this time.

And when you think "queerbaiting", I want you to think "bullying". Because that's what it is. It's lucrative bullying, like beating us up and taking our lunch money, but it's bullying all the same. And it's a real goddamn thing, even if people misuse the word a lot, often when they mean one of the two above, sometimes when they mean "bury your gays", which is another homophobic thing entirely that I'm not going to get into here. Queerbaiting is the thing we're focused on, and it's real, and it's bullying. And here's the reason I want you to think of it as bullying:

They

Think

It's

Funny.

They are actively making fun of us.

That's why Dean had the "Cas, get out of my ass," line in Supernatural. It's why the "Do you like boys?" line happened in Teen Wolf. It's why "Lie with me, Watson," happened in the RDJ Sherlock Holmes movies. Because "It's just a joke, mate." "It was just a prank, bro." "You didn't really think it would happen, did you?" "You should see your face."

So here's probably the biggest reason I don't think it's specifically queerbaiting in this specific instance of Will Byers and Mike Wheeler.

Stranger Things has never, not once, made a gay joke. Ever.

Every single time queerness comes up, it's dead serious.

Lonnie calls Will a fag, and the show is not at all reluctant to show what a goddamn horrible person he is. And when Hopper latches onto that, it's not as "Hahah, is he gay, though?" It's because he's trying to determine a potential motive for Will's disappearance, and even if someone had interpreted it as a joke, Joyce immediately has a line that functions as snapping her fingers in front of the audience's face and yelling "FOCUS" when she says "He's MISSING." Basically outright saying "This isn't funny!"

Troy calls him a fairy, along with targeting Lucas and Dustin for their skin color and disability respectively, and Mike gets damn near murderous. Troy is portrayed as a goddamn monster and the show portrays it as justice when El makes him piss his pants and later breaks his arm.

Steve calls Jonathan "queer" as a slur and gets the shit beat out of him for it.

Billy's father is revealed to be homophobic and abusive in the same breath.

Mike says "It's not my fault you don't like girls!" and we're shown how devastated Will is and Mike immediately follows him to beg for forgiveness.

There is a joke in Robin's coming-out scene, but it's not at Robin's expense. It's at Steve's. Specifically for being heteronormative.

Jonathan has multiple scenes where he's trying so hard to tell Will that he's always going to love him as he is, whether he's gay or not, without pressuring him to come out before he's ready.

Even when there's a little bit of ribbing at Robin's expense, it's always because she's an awkward nerd who's nervous around pretty girls, just the same as Lucas and Dustin are teased when they both first develop crushes on Max, and even then, even then, it always comes as a package deal where they make fun of Steve's girl problems at the same time.

Stranger Things is an emphatically pro-gay show. It may not be the core point of the show the way it is in, say, Our Flag Means Death, but there is nothing less than respect for its queer characters. Its queer characters are always taken completely seriously. No one is making fun of us. They never have. That's why I have serious doubts that this is queerbaiting. It would come completely out of left field for the bullying to start in Stranger Things' final season.

So it's not at all likely to be queerbaiting because queerness is taken completely seriously. The creators have talked about Will's queerness, at least, so it's not an accident. And queer-coding would be silly to expect from this show when it's already on its final season. Like, what is Netflix gonna do? Cancel it? Not to mention all the explicit queerness that's in there already. And no one's gonna "What about the children?" a show that's had sex scenes in it since the first season.

There's no fakeout here. It's gonna happen. Breathe.

[actual-changeling]

It was actually rather hard to decide how to begin this meta post because there are essentially going to be two main parts: why Crowley does not actually avoid/run from his problems and why "going off" is not a bad thing regardless.

Then I wrote the first part and realised this is now 2.5k words long, so uhhhh I will grant part 2 its own post.

With that, welcome back to Alex's today-not-unhinged meta corner!

I am going to approach this topic from a psychological angle, which a lot of people have already done, but without explicitly mentioning it or going into depth. All my information comes from personal experience, research, my therapist, and my psychiatrist, just so you know I am not making shit up. I actually dug up some resources my therapist gave me a while ago.

Generally, there are four different fear/survival responses: fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. Most people have probably heard about fight and flight, since those two are usually the only ones that are mentioned/taught, so I will stick to explaining the other two.

"Fawning" refers to actively being submissive and subdued, both physically and emotionally. The goal is to appear non-threatening and to calm whoever is causing the fear response in the first place. It shows up as being overly agreeable, not having thoughts/opinions of your own and ignoring them if you do, your body language changing (e.g., making yourself smaller, taking up less space), and generally attempting to 'keep the peace' or reinstate it.

"Freezing" is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin—you freeze. It means slipping into a dissociative state, which disconnects you from your body, your emotions/mind, and/or the outside world. Usually, people stop being able to talk well or at all, they do not move, and if they do, it is on autopilot; you do not fight or flee, you simply exist until what is causing the fear response is over.

While dissociating, your brain is unable to form full memories—and depending on how heavily you are dissociating, it does not form any memories at all. 

Freezing as a response happens when fight, flight, and fawn aren't possible anymore, e.g., a child who has no internal mechanisms to deal with large amounts of fear because it's a child, so the only way to escape the pain and aggressor is by fleeing into your mind and shutting down.

Why am I telling you all this? Because most people tend to have one or two survival responses that dominate/they usually fall back on, and the same goes for Aziraphale and Crowley.

When faced with an outside problem and a lot of stress, Aziraphale's first instinct is to fawn, to placate the person, to diffuse the situation, to make sure everyone is agreeing, or, at the very least, submitting to authority figures or aggressors. It is what heaven teaches them—stick to the rules, don't ask questions, do what you are told. If fawning involves lying, he will do so, here the need for safety is stronger than his desire to be truthful and stick to his morals.

Unfortunately, the fact that this is his primary fear response is also the reason behind his extreme cognitive dissonance. How can you stick to the rules when you do not know what the rules ARE? So he is stuck trying to figure out what is "good" and what is "bad" so he can be a good angel and avoid doing anything that might be seen as bad or disobedient.

His secondary response to stress or fear is to fight—once it's clear that fawning won't work, he can and will switch over to being more direct and aggressive/less submissive. We see that happening when he gets discorporated in season 1 and needs to get back to earth, at the airbase, or when the bookshop gets attacked.

If I were to ask you what you think Crowley's primary fear response is, how would you respond?

Well, if you said "flight"—you're wrong, and I will explain why.

Flight is his secondary fear response, it is what he falls back on in absolute emergencies when everything is doomed and there's nothing he can do anymore.

Before that, though, he fights.

Even as an angel, he was already questioning the system, he was ready to go and tell God she was doing a terrible job, that her ideas were bad, that he wants to keep his stars and the universe— six thousand years are nothing! If you actively oppose existing rules and defy people's authority over you, fighting is the only option you have unless you plan on giving up or the response becomes too much to deal with.

Fear itself happens when you or someone/something you love is being threatened (whether that threat is real or simply perceived as such doesn't matter), plus there are a large number of more irrational fears.

Crowley's creations were threatened -> He goes against the rules, he wants to fight for them.

On the walls of Eden, he questions God and talks to an angel, his hereditary enemy, once again defying the rules, questioning them.

Job and his children were threatened -> He goes against orders to try and save them.

There is good reason to believe he went against God by saving some of the children from the flood.

He showed Jesus the kingdoms of the world—do we really think that was based on orders? No, it was once again Crowley not playing by the rules.

Wessex? He proposes the Arrangement, which is one gigantic "fuck you" in his fight against celestial rules. Everything after that goes back to Crowley knowing that their jobs suck and that they can cheat, fight the system by working together. In 1827, it gets him pulled to hell and punished, and yet he does not stop; he keeps fighting.

Crowley is the one who immediately tries to stop the apocalypse. Aziraphale needs to be talked into it, needs to be convinced with selfish reasons and personal pleasure.

The reason why both heaven and hell absolutely loathe him is not because he is a runner; it's because he constantly and consistently defies them. He fights.

In season two, he immediately tries to deal with the Gabriel problem while Aziraphale is standing behind him and saying "I don't know" to all of his questions. Taking him somewhere so they can figure shit out in peace is not 'running'—it's smart. Sure, it's far from ideal, but we see what keeping him in the bookshop brought them, don't we? The hiding miracle is what tipped heaven and hell off in the first place.

Aziraphale goes to Edinburgh based on a hunch, but once again—did that help? Did his journalist roleplay trip actually provide vital information that solved a single puzzle piece of that mess? No. Finding out that Gabriel was at that pub with some mystery person was a nice fact to know, but that's it.

During the ball, Crowley is scared, vigilant, prowling around the shop, checking windows, telling Aziraphale to "stop this charade" so they can figure out what to do. Aziraphale, in that moment, was already convinced that sticking to the rules would save them—a heavenly embassy on a technicality, surely the group of fallen angels who got booted due to not following heaven's rules will respect that.

Crowley goes to heaven, which is once again him actively looking for a solution, while Aziraphale also falls back on fighting because fawning is not going to do shit.

There are three times during which Crowley suggests fleeing—which is his secondary fear response—but those are exceptions. Let's have a look at them.

The first one is at the bandstand, the evening before the Apocalypse, and since Aziraphale is lying to him, the situation seems hopeless to him. Yet he is still having his 'agents' look for him, is still fighting.

Do you know why he even suggests running? He is about to leave when Aziraphale calls him back with "there isn't anywhere to go," and now allow me to insert the following passage from the scriptbook.

Crowley looks back. He looks at Aziraphale. Above them, a beautiful starry sky. And Crowley softens.

"Big universe. Even if this all ends up in a puddle of burning goo, we could go off together."

The sentence in the show is slightly different, but they have one thing in common: If.

IF the world ends, we can still leave and be together. IF.

Crowley is NOT saying "let's leave", he is presenting Aziraphale with a contingency plan in case stopping the Apocalypse does not work. He is NOT running, he isn't even SUGGESTING to run.

It's a "if the world ends, we can be together. We don't need to be with hell or heaven; we can be in the stars," because remember what the end of the world would mean? Eternal torture for Crowley while Aziraphale bores himself to death in heaven.

The next time he suggests it again—when he stops Aziraphale on the street—several things have happened.

First, he did not leave. If he truly wanted to flee, he would have by now, but he didn't. He sits in a cinema waiting for the end: "Out of time. Out of hope," as Neil puts it. Then Hastur and Ligur show up on screen and tell him, 'You're dead meat, Crowley. You're bloody history. […] We're coming to collect you'.

We all know that means "eternal torture in hell," but if you're not convinced for some reason, have another snippet from the script book that did not make it into the show.

Dagon is speaking from the Bentley's radio while he drives towards the bookshop, saying that something has gone wrong and they're sure he has a 'perfectly reasonable explanation' for it. Once he gets out of the car, however, Dagon still keeps going and says the following:.

"Your explanation, and the circumstances that will accompany it, will provide a source of entertainment for all the damned of hell, Crowley. Because no matter what agonies the damned are suffering, Crowley, you will have it worse."

Crowley already knows that. He has been punished by them before, heard, seen, lived torture, there is no doubt as to what will happen should they catch him. So he does what any person with a single fucking brain cell would do—he tries to get his loved one and FLEE.

Flight is the best response in this situation, and if you need me to explain why, then honestly, I cannot help you anymore. I won't go into detail about Aziraphale's response, but, tl;dr, it was shitty and incredibly hurtful, go figure.

Now, let's get to situation number 3, which is his speech during the final fifteen. We do not have an official script for that, but someone did make transcriptions for all episodes; you can find them here. Additionally, I will copy some of what I already said in a different meta post.

Crowley, stuck in his trauma-induced hypervigilance and paranoia, suggests putting as much distance between them and the problem as possible. I think it is interesting that in ep1 he wants to get Gabriel away from them, while at the end of the season, he is ready to get them away from the problem.

So far, I have never seen anyone mention that change! And it’s important! The entire season, it is hammered into our heads how much they love being on earth. It is THEIR bookshop and THEIR car and THEIR life.

Crowley wants to protect that home, and Gabriel is a threat to it, a threat to both of them, their life, the bookshop—everything. He does not want to leave, he wants his peace and angel in one place.

Yet by allowing Gabriel to stay, Aziraphale destroyed the sense of comfort and safety Crowley had slowly developed over the last few decades. Heaven nipping down every now and then to check in with Aziraphale is very different from him sheltering the Supreme Archangel who is running from ‘something terrible’ without even asking if he’s alright with that.

Aziraphale calls it their bookshop, but he fundamentally still sees it as his space to govern and Crowley as a guest; he even calls it a 'heavenly embassy'.

After another horrible week and having his previously safe space violated by several different times and beings, Crowley is back to where he was before—without a home. That fragile existence broke apart, so he is standing in the heap of shards and telling Aziraphale 'I don’t feel safe here anymore, let’s leave’.

He lost his safe space, but he still has his safe person, his best and only friend, the person he loves. I doubt he cares where exactly they go as long as they’re together and it’s safe.

Returning to heaven—it is the one place Crowley cannot follow him to. It’s literally the worst option, he can’t go back, he won’t go back. So he invokes the bookshop again, if you don’t want to stay for me, stay for the bookshop, your books, your corner of existence that I thought we had carved out for ourselves.

There is a common error that people make regarding the timeline, which is assuming that during this conversation they are already aware of the impending apocalypse—but they aren't. Aziraphale himself has no clue, and while Crowley saw the conversation and trial, he does NOT know when it will happen. For all he knows, it could be tomorrow, could be in a thousand years, and, even if he had been given a date, I doubt they laid out all the details and how to stop it.

Considering that his original plan was "get drunk at the Ritz and then have us time," I don't think he knew literally anything about how or when to stop it. So no, Crowley does NOT suggest running away from earth and leaving it to die.

All he wants is some bloody peace and quiet where no demons, angels, or power-hungry floating heads can interrupt them. A space that is safe and theirs. There are also zero mentions of where he wants them to go; he is not talking about the stars or the universe. He wants to get away from where they currently are because heaven and hell show up uninvited whenever they please.

If your boss and ex-boss constantly kicked down your front door and stated their wish to torture you, would you stay there or would you move? Yeah.

This post got very long, but it was long overdue.

I am tired of seeing people call Crowley a callous coward who always runs away from his problems when he is the literal opposite. You take three sentences said under exceptional circumstances and apply them to Crowley as a whole, when it is nothing but his last ditch effort to keep himself and Aziraphale safe.

One last thing: If you come onto my post and start aggressively arguing about this, I will block you. Genuine discussions and questions are always welcome, being a dick is not, and I also simply cannot handle some of the rhetoric people in this fandom perpetuate because it's very triggering.

Make your own post, don't do it on mine.

[cripplecharacters]

Hi, I’m concerned about whether there is anything regarding disability that are strictly off limits for abled author to write about. For example, I know it’s meaningless for an abled author to write about what it means to be disabled, or the disabled experience. Is there anything else that would be infringing on boundaries & risk speaking over actual disabled authors? I know including non-POV disabled characters who just happen to be disabled are fine with proper research. But I feel as if I might be treading some risky ground here because I have a POV character who is disabled. Regarding that, I want to know if some things are off limits if I am abled myself (such as their personal feelings regarding their disability - it’d be odd if I didn’t mention this at all since they’re a POV character, but I don’t know to what extent/if i should explore this at all, especially since it’s a result of injury).

Hi!

Outside of the examples you gave ("what it means/how it is to be disabled") I don't anything is strictly and always off limits for abled writers in general because disabled people will have such a wide range of opinions* on this that it'd be impossible to know what you can and can't do - it's better to just do it well and thoughtfully if you do decide to go for it.

*Examples: I know disabled people who don't want people without their disability to write characters with it at all, no exceptions. I really heavily dislike abled writers putting their disabled characters through nightmarish levels of ableism because it feels like torture porn or at least as exploitative. Someone else will be fine with abled writers doing literally anything. Some people see all non-OwnVoices representation as inspiration porn. Disabled people are too big and diverse of a group to come to a specific consensus.

There are areas where I think they should be more careful, like in stories where a character suddenly becomes disabled, as that can easily turn into a plotline that focuses on how disability is bad due to the missing nuances of such an experience. Even putting aside that there's a ton of room for factual errors on how recovery or just the medical side of things in general looks like, I feel like it can be difficult to write this kind of plotline in detail if you don't have experience in it. For this kind of things, I believe that sensitivity readers are a must if you want it to be a major part of the story. If it's a minor one then I think it can be okay, especially if you aren't going into the emotional nitty-gritty of the whole process much.

There's also the obvious topic of tropes that I think abled writers should avoid - but as you probably seen on our blog, there will always be exceptions to them. Example: I always say to not put your character with a facial difference in a mask - but in this post I said it was fine if XYZ happened. Nuance and all. But putting tropes in just to be "subversive" usually comes off as cheap, assuming that they actually are subversive in the first place (which they usually aren't).

Tropes are tools, and they can be used well if the writers put effort in, and especially if they ask the group that the trope itself affects. They are bad if they're done mindlessly and without care for actual disabled people, and at the end of the day it depends on how the writer decides to use them. Don't just assume that your case is "special" and "totally different" from all those people who do use them wrong - these two groups often end up as a perfectly circular Venn diagram. Check with disabled readers first.

Having a POV disabled character is completely fine in my opinion. It's not like we are a completely alien, unrelatable concept to abled people. It can be done well, but it does also require more thought and effort to be put in. Again, I think that sensitivity readers can be incredibly helpful in a case like this.

And I think that it is important for the writer to just look at the page and ask: do I know enough to write about the character experiencing X? Because sometimes the answer will be no, and that's fine. Not even stories written by disabled people will touch on every single aspect of the disabled experience because it's so incredibly wide that there would be no place left for actual plot.

We also don't just sit around and think about how we feel about our disabilities. Sure, deciding how your character feels about it in the vague sense is helpful for characterization, but there's a ton of disabled people who treat their disability as a complete non-event. People like us who mod a blog about disability representation are very much a minority. Your character could just be like "oh yeah I guess I do use crutches but it's been 10 years so I keep forgetting about it" and only actively think about that when the actual situation calls for it.

Your character could be 100% neutral about their disability and just think of their cane as something they carry around the same way they do with their house keys, or could be So Positive and make sure their cane compliments their outfit just right every time they leave the house. What I'd advise against is a character who dislikes their disability. Again, it probably could be done well if there was a lot of effort involved, but it's really not something I look forward to when we're talking about abled writers. Even if their intentions are good, or even if they want to show the diverse spectrum of disability (which again, is true! there are people who feel purely negatively about theirs), it feels weird. Like, why? I think that in 99% cases, those kinds of characters are better left off to disabled writers.

Last thing that I want to add: unless you're writing about ableism, or time-accurate historical fiction, don't use slurs. If you want to refer to some movements that use any of them (Cripplepunk) either shorten them (CPunk), beep the slur out, or at the very least acknowledge that they are slurs.

I hope that this helps!

mod Sasza

[molsno]

one of mainstream feminism's largest failures of the past decade or so was the propagation of the term "toxic masculinity." I don't mean to say that the ways that men uphold rigid, overly-restrictive notions of masculinity shouldn't be discussed and criticized, but the name given to this phenomenon failed to accurately describe it for what it is: transmisogyny.

I think that here, julia serano's definition of transmisogyny makes it clear why that's a better word to describe this phenomenon. transmisogyny is the intersection between oppositional sexism, which is rooted in the belief that male and female are rigid, mutually exclusive, and "opposite" categories with no overlap between them whatsoever; and traditional sexism, the presumption that femininity is innately inferior to masculinity. when these two forms of sexism intersect, the result is transmisogyny.

when you look at it this way, it becomes clear why "toxic masculinity" is an insufficient term. when a man chastises a young boy for crying, or when a woman mocks her male date for ordering a fruity drink at a bar, it's a message that communicates two things:

"you're a man. that behavior is categorized as feminine, so it is off-limits to you."

"because that behavior is categorized as feminine, doing it anyway will make you inferior to other men."

because the message is a combination of these two forms of sexism, it's transmisogyny, even if the person being chastised is not transfem or even gender non-conforming. however, let's be clear: this doesn't mean that men are uniquely victimized by transmisogyny. while yes, it is painful for some men to be held to these expectations, by and large, it is men who stand to gain the most by upholding them.

the goal behind this particular instance of transmisogyny is to discourage men from becoming "lesser" in the eyes of society. it is to punish them for being feminine, so that they will police themselves without anyone needing to punish them further. it is to prevent anyone assigned male at birth from even thinking about partaking in femininity. it is to stop trans women from existing, because we vehemently reject the notions that the two sexes are opposites with no overlap and that femininity is inferior to masculinity in the first place.

men benefit from this form of transmisogyny, and until now, they've never been held accountable for it. sure, maybe cis women will ridicule a man who refuses to order a lavender drink at a coffee shop and only uses 3-in-1 shampoo with "men's" in a big bold font on the label for being insecure in his masculinity, but this minor grievance is easily outweighed by the many privileges he holds for being masculine. maintaining these privileges is of the utmost importance for him, which is why, even after years of mainstream feminists raising awareness about and mocking "toxic masculinity," men still uphold and enforce the transmisogyny that allowed them to obtain these privileges in the first place. their position at the top of the gender hierarchy is a great place to be, and they can only stay there by ensuring that everyone else is firmly beneath them, with trans women at the very bottom.

and let me make myself clear from the outset, before this post starts circulating around and people start adding their own additions to it. it is a failure of mainstream feminism that this topic always begins and ends with discussions about men, when the people who are the most traumatized by this phenomenon are trans women. yes, it is unfortunate that many men have been so heavily conditioned by this phenomenon that they can't so much as cry when someone near to them dies, but I have very little sympathy for those men who then turn around and enforce the very same transmisogyny onto others.

furthermore, nowhere in this post did I say that only cis men benefit from this form of transmisogyny; trans men can and do uphold it, and likewise benefit from doing so, albeit usually to a lesser extent than cis men. even if they do so because their masculinity is called into question at a far greater rate than cis men's masculinity (and thus the stakes for failing to conform are higher), it still pales in comparison to how often trans women have been harassed and assaulted for failing to conform to the expectations of masculinity that were placed upon us all our lives, expectations which most of us never wanted anything to do with.

moving forward, we need to discard "toxic masculinity" as a term and start describing it for what it is: transmisogyny. we need to center trans women in the conversation, as we're the ones who are the direct targets of transmisogyny. we need to hold tme people accountable for enforcing these overly rigid gender roles in the first place - ESPECIALLY cis men, who benefit the most from doing so. and most importantly, everyone needs to stop talking over trans women when we discuss transmisogyny by redirecting the conversation to talk about how it hurts some other group. it should be enough that it hurts us. transmisogyny is the core of so many forms of gendered oppression that challenging it directly will benefit everyone in the long run, but it will have the most immediate and profound impact on us, and I think that's an important enough reason to work to combat it.

[pineappleparfaitie]

So..what hapened ?(In regards to the ''drama'')

Hey Pine here. So im sure the SFW vore community has been made aware of ''drama'' that was caused by me and another user nammed Static.I want to ask for the community to at least spread this post around and not label it drama.PLEASE DONT SWEEP THIS UNDER THE RUG AND READ THE CONTENTS OF THIS POST! THIS POST WILL INCLUDE /MENTION THE FOLLOWING: Mentions of the genocide in palestine, antisemitism, national socialism (aka nazism), false alligations, harrasment, threats of doxing, potential ACTUAL doxing, manipulation , mentions of self harm (including suicide),a bit of misgendering among a few others. Again as triggering as these topics may be I heavily encourage you to the read the full contents of this post . And if you have alluded to this situation to no longer label it as drama or ''2 minors arguing over the internet''. Thank you. This post is HEAVY in terms of content and length.So be prepared for that as well.

Edit as of 4:13PM of june 2nd.I forgot to add the misgendering bit.

So who are the players? This whole thing sorrounds 3 main people ; me (pine) , Static (Aka staticmoonshock) and Zet (OpikArts).

Edit as of august: Static was 15 but mid july tutned 16.As far as ive grasped things. I need to clarify as of Febuary 18th im 16 years old. Static to my knowladge has also been 16 for a while, i wont disclose Zets age but everyone here is either 16 or near 17. Another clarification needed is that Static has supposedly left their tumblr account and HAS deleted their side blog oyasumioyasumicloseyoureyes. Even if they arent active targated harrassment is NOT ENDORCED,ENCOUREGED AND IF I SEE ANY HARRASSMENT YOU ARE DIRT TO ME AND ARE NOT HELPING AT ALL. Static is someone who was frequent in the SFW vore community and were best known for sending people asks usually accompanied with their OC's and wanting people to engage with them.They would usually find someone and then proceed to almost spam that person with asks (in an rp fashion sometimes) Zet or OpikArts is someone id say is a very well known figure in the SFW vore community that I dont believe needs much introduction. And them me aka 1#dumbass. Now onto the rest: In early march Static and I had our first interaction via this ask - https://www.tumblr.com/pineappleparfaitie/744426151470071808/i-give-you-the-smol-prey-he-is-very-squish-and?source=share I had problems with them from the start that being the overcrowding of my blog with their asks and it cluttured my blog. However i should have told Static this directly which was my first mistake. I then added this type of behaviour as not accaptable on my BYI. I need you to know this was MARCH 9TH the date will play a role later. on march 11th I followed them back and we started chatting

Static here told me to tell them if they were overwhelming. And it was a mistake on my end for not saying it sooner.

So Static has known me for more then 2 months. I need people to be aware of that. We had friendly convos on and off and they ;after a period of time- gave me some not so pleasent thoughts. What I mean is Static had behaviours comparable to my abuser. My abuser would vent with no warning, would not put triggers, would talk about his personal life and tell me triggering things and would also mention harming himself. (in 1 instance he sent elf harm scars he inflected on himself so i could send them to his ex partner in an attempt of guilt tripping them). I am all for mental health awearness, and venting but NEVR vent to someone without any warning because you have no idea wtf they are going threw. I was a child therapist at 11 years old to a 15 year old dude and was till he was halfway threw being 20. I know this is HEAVILY personal from my end but I need people to be aware of this notion to better understand WHY i didint like talking to this person and WHY I should have cut them off when I initally started talking to them, After them yet again telling me personal details i asked them this (i have censored their messege as it had personal details regarding their life and i do not want people weaponising this against them or revealing private stuff regarding their life.)

NOTE!EVEN HERE I TELL STATIC WE ARE MOOTS!I KNOW I SOUND MEAN BUT BEING MY FRIEND IS A LOT MORE PERSONAL THEN BEING A MOOT!STATIC WOULD STATE LATER I WAS THEIR FRIEND SO I BELIEVE WE HAD MISCUMUNICATIONS FROM THE START!THIS IS A FAULT ON MY END WITH NOT CLEARLY COMMUNICATING  M Y   FEELINGS AND NOT TELLING THEM THINGS MORE BLUNTLY. In ALL HONESTLY i should have been upfront with them and immidietly told them what made me uncomftrable but I wanted to be nice because its rude to just tell someone who likes your work ''can you not?'' Static would maybe onc or twice after this forget about me telling them this but it was alright for the most part. Now then. on May 14th i sent Static this messege (this is where the subject of the Genocide in Palestine starts)

For context:I had a back and fort with someone who i talked about Hazbin Hotel with and how i simply dont like the creator due the fact she has the otpion to boycott but doesnt. And I still stand by the fact if you CAN and are PRIVALEGED enough to boycott you should . Thats not the point of this however it was just context. Static (from what i believe) saw this and on their side blog said how they wished so much pressure wasnt put on my minors to boycott. As well as the main problem regarding everything that being how much antisemitism they were seeing. THIS is where my BIGGEST issue lied with Static. I am ALL for critisizing people who associate jews with israelis and then use that as an excuse to be antisemetic. THAT IS NOT ''OKAY'' THAT IS BLATANT ANTISEMITISM AND YOU ARE DOING HARM TO INNOCENT PEOPLE WHO PROBABLY DONT EVEN AGREE WITH THE THINGS HAPPENING.But Static THEMSELVES for this whole time had the notion that Israel= jews/judism and that if you hated Israel you hated its citizens therefor you hated Jews. I cannot show certain screenshots as they are PERSONAL to Static and I am not going to mention THAT. The reason MOBIZEN is visible is because later down the line Zet suggested I recorded mine and Statics whole Tumblr chat (may 29th) and I cant remove the audio to the recordings so I cannot link the videos due to my voice being on those recordgins, my fathers voice and my own cries and sobs as I was suffering a full on meltdown.WE WILL GET INTO THAT.HOWEVER AS PROOF OF THE VIDEOS EXISTENCE :

Static and I had back forths on this topic . I WANT TO RE-ITTARATE STATIC DIDINT EVEN KNOW WHAT ZIONIST MEANT AT THIS POINT AND WAS IN MY OPINION UNEDUCATED ON THE TOPIC OF THE GENOCIDE HAPPENING.

Isreal is a JEWISH state but not every Israeli is JEWISH. Isreal has hurt and killed their own citizens, has killed and hurt Palestinian Rabbis because they dont care about Jewish people they care about using it as a weapon and shield for the autrocities they commit.I WANT TO EXPLAIN THIS BECAUSE STATIC IS CLEARLY UNDER THE NOTION THAT ISREAL IS ALL JEWS ! I do not think they found good sources for this topic. Static had a period of educating themselves, we agreed more then ONCE to not mention this topic (i became more distant as this really made me upset – look up Srebrenica Massicare it relates to my country )

Static didint know what the word ''state'' meant and made assumptions on my words and their own personal definition. I WANT TO RE-ITTARATE I WAS NO ANGEL DURING THIS AND WHEN THIS TOPIC CAME AROUND I WAS VERY QUICK TO BE AGRESSIVE AND NOT TOLORATE THEIR VIEWS. I WAS A TOTAL DICKWAD AND STATIC HAD EVERY RIGHT TO BE MAD ATME FOR IT!! I DO NOT TOLORATE ANY ZIONIST VIEWS OR ANYTHING IN SUPPORT OF ISREALS EXISTANCE!I DO NOT THINK STATIC THEMSELVES IS A ZIONIST NOR WILL I CALL THEM THAT I THINK THEY NEED TO BE EDUCATED AND PROPERLY SO!BUT THEY HAVE SHOWN VIEWS RELATING TO ZIONISM AND I WANT TO MAKE THAT EVIDENT! This all went on during may , Statics general behaviour put me off and their overwhelmingness made it worse for me. THIS WAS MY FAULT I SHOULD HAVE CUT THEM OFF IN MARCH AND NOT LET THIS SHIT FESTER!I NEED TO SAY THIS BECAUSE I WANT TO BE BLUNT! H a d  I not let this fester for as long as it did I would have not been in this situation, neither would have Zet. And their views on Israel and Palestine didint help a bit. Static isnt jewish, they are an atheist and are in a church , however they have Jewish herritage. Wil al this here is the prolouge to the main event of this shitshow: This will be shown in full Static said they were going threw a episode during the writing of this, and I will not fault them for having one. However I couldnt handle being around someone who clearly wasnt mentally well and was making ME mentally WORSE. (fyi we were talking abt smth completely unrelated to this when Static sent this)

(this is what the japanese text translates to:)

I WANT ALL OF THIS in full to be here so people know why I wanted to cut ties with Static.The following is what had us cut ties.

After this Static proceeded to block me.Quick clerification: The reason i asked Static about the Japanese thing is because I wanted to see how premeditated that episode could have been.Because if they wrote that only to put it into google translate that would have needed more effort then to simply write that text in dm's. However I do think Static GENUINELY had a episode here- what kind I cannot say. (deppresive or something else. Static vauge posted about me in a vent

It was back and forth of me and them vaugeposting about eachother. On this blog you can find EVERY ONE OF MY REAL TIME RESPONSES TO THIS https://www.tumblr.com/thessituation I have made edits to the post to provide further context. I will not be summarasing them up excpt 1 important post that caused this mess to get worse.The rest I trust you – the reader to go look threw them, I rebloged them chronologically so start from the last post and work up to the latest. The post I want to talk about is this one: https://www.tumblr.com/pineappleparfaitie/751836863121293313/normally-i-dont-justify-nazis-with-a-response-but at the end of the post i explain stuff but to elaborate: I put sfw vore community tags on this post because it was clear evidence of Static wishing me harm and saying the vilest of the stuff they said during this situation. However this caused others in the community to call this post drama and also put sfw vore tags and it caused a domino effect. This made people especially more well known creators with larger followings to want to sweep this under the rug, people didint want to interact with this ''drama'' , one user even called this an argument between 2 minors .I was going threw what I now believe to be a SERIES of MULTIPLE panic attacks and since ive never been threw ONE of those . For the majority of may 29th i was going threw hell. And I was on a school trip for the 30th and 31st.

Now here is who Zet/opikarts is in all this. Zet is a polish dude who has a deep rooted hatred for nazis (as most normal people do but him especially) Zet came into play because him and Static were in contact for a simmilar time me and Static were in contact. They first started talking on the 7th of March.During this period the 2 became friends. I was aware of this as Static mentioned it to me beforehand while we were on good terms. Upon me wanting to cut ties and them blocking me- Static told Zet I was an aspiring neo nazi, that i was manipulative , that I hated jews, that I was aantisemetic ect ect ect. They had simmilar behaviours towards Opic as they did to me and they talked about wanting to harm themselves and vented to him about me and all this. They never showed proof for any of this mind you and had Zet blindly believe them and encorouged them to not talk to me about it- effectively making it so he would not only believe them but never question anything. Static also said it would make them feel better if he blocked me, he only unfollowed me and made me unfollow him. Zet liked every single one of Statics posts that they made in response to this situationa as HE believed he was helping a friend fight of a neo-nazi/nazi , this included the post that wished death upon me (he didint read it threw all the way or properly the first time and he didint agree with what Static said after the fact. I blocked Zet in a fit of panic and anger and then a moot and a friend od mine – Koko aka Koko puffs love informed me that Zet wanted to talk with me to clear stuff up. IN THIS TIME PERIOD STATIC CLAIMED THEIR FRIEND SAM COULD DOX ME!THAT HE HAD STOLEN 2 FIGTHER JETS AND HE COULD SEE MY IP  (which couldnt tell u as much as u think it can) AND TRIED LINKING IT TO AN ANON ASKS GIVING THEM A BOMB THREAT!I DID NOT AND STATIC HAS NOT PROVIDED ANY PROPER SUBSANTIAL EVIDENCE! https://www.tumblr.com/staticmoonshock/751839511503339520/aight-hoes-i-know-some-of-yall-will-take-this-and?source=share this is not evidence i requested video proof of Sam showing the code and i have recieved nothing.

Edit for 4:13PM june 2nd:

Static also reffered to me with fem terms like miss,mrs,ms and girlie ,later saying those terms arent gendered in their eyes.However later they told Zet that they thought i had she/her in my bio always.They sent me multiple asks meaning they HAD to have seen my they/them in my bio and I dont think Zet was aware of how long we talked when they told him this. They were either lying and PURPOSEFULLY misgendering me to further dehumanise me ,mock me ect or they literally never read my bio or my BYI EVER .Neither is really cool. KOKO SUPPORTED ME DURING THIS TIME!THEY DIDINT LIKE PEOPLE CALLING THIS DRAMA!IT ACTIVELY SHOWED ME SUPPORT IN THAT AWFUL TIME!THEY DIDINT WANT PEOPLE CALLING THIS SHIT DRAMA! And me and Zet talked. The reason in the screenshots you see mobizen is because Zet suggested recording mine and Statics chat as Static deleted theirs. Everything. FROM M A Y   9 T  H . I did this along with providing numerous screenshots and after the  fact. And then Zet saw Static lied to him ,overexagarated shit ect ect. And now we are on very good terms. The reason I make this post is because people either swept this under the rug ,encorouged it to be done and spread the info this was an argument. It was in fact someone who clearly isnt in the best headspace actively harrasing someone who wanted to cut ties with them, lying about said person (me) to their friend (Zet) and then after all this. Static deleted most of the posts regarding this situation. (i mention this in the post that started the whole ''this is only drama'' mess.)

I sincerely hope this is spread around the community and that this being a drama is no longer the thought behind this situation. People got hurt for no reason because someone couldnt take people not wanting to be their friend. Upon my post ''Regarding recent events'' Static made a now deleted post saying that they forgave me when they probably shouldnt and they would let me talk with them about the genocide (fyi they rebloged posts and shit saying how this wasnt agenocide) and I did not get 1 apology. I have made multiple to Static, multiple. I have not recieved  1 single ''sorry'' about the death wish, the dox threats, the insults, the nazi labeling I hav recieved NOTHING. This is the text i sent to Static on May 30th after that post was made

I put all this fourth so people can understand WHY I acted the way I DID, WHY this thing happened AND WHY it was handled so poorly on my end. I was in a state of panic I could not describe to you, a large creator with a following twice your size seemingly supporting the idea youre a nazi and that you deserve to be hit by a train, someone you just wanted to cut off threataning to DOX you and your poor decision to tag a post with community tags to spread awareness causing others to do the same except labeling it as ''DRAMA'' – making the whole community leave you on your own. Yeah May 29th was WORSE then the WORST EXPIRENCES I HAVE  E V E R  had with my ABUSER. Zet and I are thankfully on good terms now and I dont blame him for being manipulated it wasnt his fault. And I – well angry  and upset with how the community handled this- I cant blame it for not wanting to get involved what was painted as ''drama between 2 kids''. Please go show your support to Zet as well as he also felt like crap during this time.Being manipulated feels awful and isnt fun in the fucking slightest and its just a shitshow frankly.

EDIT AS OF JUNE 3RD:

Static made a response post to the situation/this post in particular. I saw this and screenshotted it at aroumd 12:39 PM my time.

This post has since been deleted.

Dear Static;

You have lied about a person to someones face,manipulated them and actively tried to cause harm.You fighting for the right to your opinion included you to call someone a nazi ,antisemetic,to wish them death and to threaten them with doxing- to harrass someone with no proof. Your opinion on a GENOCIDE means NOTHING to me because it justifies the idea of the existence of a TERRORIST STATE

I wanted to cut ties because of THIS behaviour. Not JUST your opinion. Your behaviour caused me to double down on that notion.

You KNOW i fucked up tagging the community in this -it was a cry for help . But you KNEW of the harm I did. And you actively tagged this community to do as much damage as possible.You deleted this post meaning you arent gone.And im GLAD im HOPING that youre okay that youre alive and well.But you paint the narrative that people dont like your takes on a genocide. Its not only that- but your behaviour. Now back to the contens of thr OG post.

-end of edit

Edit as of June 7th.

Static is fine they seem do be doing well.That is all. Update as of June 7th 9PM roughly.

Just a screenshot, i am in no state to type anything out. That is all. back to the original contents.

Update as of 2am June 10th:

Static somehow interacted with me threw thessituation blog i am figuring out how to block them on there as well.

i will not comment further i believe ive presented the evidence neccessary and i am only posting this here as an archive.

Back to the original contents Update June 13th:

... They are wanting to persue legal action- back to OG contents . . .

To Staticmoonshock I hope you are well, I hope you get the help you need.I dont wish you harm, of any kind. Just please get the help you need before you return to a community space. But please, never contact me again. -Pine

Update as of Jun 30th.

Not really an update however just to say a few things. I have no idea how Static is now or if they have gotten better and im no longer engaging with them period. So below is only what i know.

-Static threatened to take legal action against me via contacting a friend and their friend , later deleting a post alluding to contacting a lawyer

-allegedly tried to take their life twice.Once by taking almost 30 zoloft pills with a 100mg dose which should have killed them but they only said they were like idk loopy?May have taken less then in the picture they provided

-they DID give me an apology , a bad one and one i wont accept, but an apology nonetheless

-said i showed private stuff but later said they couldnt see any of my post as i have them blocked maybe that was just poor wording so ill take it with some salt.

-said they stabbed themselves in the eye with scissors and what i believe-faked a bloody image

And yeah thats about it no clue whats going on now lol

[institute-of-dolls]

Hello!This one is pretty new to the doll community, and is pretty sure it's a doll, but still isn't fully sure what that means or what kind of doll it is. Would the institute happen to have any good condensed sources on things? It does know that in general being a doll is rather personal, so if there isn't, that's alright too.

Hi there! I have a few good starting posts to direct to:

There is this write up here, from us. It discusses dollhood from multiple angles but heavily from community. Additionally this post from Witchpassing gets at dollhood in as an aspect of their creation well. And this one from absentwriterdoll that resonated with us about the nature of dollhood. As for figuring out what kind of doll you are, I am not sure i have any resources for that off the top of my head. It is a lot of self discovery and reflection for most, though finding community with other dolls can help. On both topics I will, as usual invite my fellow handlers and witches, as well as any dolls following to weigh in on. I know especially on what a doll is, that i have seen some amazing writings from others in the community that I am just struggling to find atm. And for how to figure out what kind of doll you are, I'm sure someone (or something) will have advice around the community somewhere. I also think we are going to do a masterpost list soon, inspired by this and a few other asks. Attempt to make a nice condensed 101 answers list maybe

[topperscumslut]

Let’s Talk About Jay Kelso

Warning: spoilers for That 90s Show

So I just binged T90S, and I’m not really sure how to feel, particularly about Jay. On one hand, I did really like his character, but not as much as I thought I would. And part of me thinks that’s my own fault for creating this idea in my mind of exactly what I thought he would be like without the show even being out yet, but part of me feels justified in my disappointment in the way his character was written and I’m wondering if anyone else agrees with me on this.

Jay started out really strong, he was flirty and charismatic, yet cheesy and respectful. The first two episodes have kind of blurred together at this point since I pulled an all nighter to watch this and I’m coming down from my caffeine high, but I saw a lot of potential for his character that I really didn’t see fulfilled in the rest of the series. Let me preface this by saying that I do not blame Mace Coronel, who plays Jay, AT ALL for this. I adore Mace and believe he’s beyond talented and did the best he could with what he was given. I blame it on lazy writing. As much as I love both T70S and T90S, a lot of the writing REALLY pisses me off (especially the treatment of Jackie in both shows, but that’s a topic for another time).

In my opinion, Jay peaked in episode three and it was all kind of downhill from there. Again, I still enjoyed his character, but it wasn’t what I expected or wanted from him. And maybe I am just projecting and set unreasonable expectations for his character, but I have a strong feeling the fandom will agree with me on this. Ep3 Jay really felt like the fanon Jay that I had imagined in my mind and had seen in posts from other users on here. He was still a charismatic flirt, but he was also slightly awkward, incredibly sweet, and a little dorky like I had imagined him. Between what I’d seen in trailers, official character descriptions, other tumblr users’ fan theories, and my own imagination, I imagined Jay having the charm of Kelso but much more depth. I saw him as being a bit of a nerd who loves girls but, unlike his father, isn’t a womanizer and genuinely respects them. I imagined him as very introspective, poetic, and intelligent, which I didn’t really see much of at all after episode three. Kelso himself even says in the pilot that Jay has his good looks and Jackie’s brains. And Jackie was always truly intelligent, even though she usually wasn’t treated that way. He was also described as always having a camera with him and constantly taking videos and photos of his friends which, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think we saw that even once in this season. In my mind, Jay Kelso was a goofy film geek who’s popular with the ladies due to his good looks and charisma, but in a much more unconventional way than his father is. But as the series progressed, I felt like he became more and more like Kelso. Which sucks because I despise Kelso with a passion.

Let’s talk about what I liked about Jay in episode three. When Leia tries to get Jay to kiss her, he turns her down because he doesn’t want her to be a meaningless fling and because he can tell this isn’t really what she wants. So I was like okay, consent king, respecting women, we love to see it. I also fully expected Jay to be a virgin for a couple reasons. First of all, in the original series, all of the core cast (except maybe Hyde) were virgins at the beginning of the series, EVEN KELSO, and besides Jackie, they were all older than the T90S crew at 17/18, whereas the next gen of Point Place kids are all 14-16, maybe some of them 17. But in T90S it’s heavily implied that the whole gang beside Leia (and possibly Ozzie, since his boyfriend lives in Canada) have all lost their virginity. Secondly, it would be such a plot twist. A Kelso being a virgin? Unspeakable! I fully expected this grand reveal of Jay saying he doesn’t want to make the same mistakes of his father and that he’s waiting for the right person, someone he’s truly in love with, and that person being Leia (though I am glad that Jay and Leia didn’t have sex for multiple reasons. The age of the characters, their lack of chemistry, and the age difference between the actors, to name a few). I was also genuinely surprised at Jay’s lack of daddy issues. All the posts with spoilers from before the show was out from people who had seen tapings suggested Kelso being an absent father who doesn’t really love or care for Jay, which led me to believe Jay would want to be as little like his father as possible, but there was literally nothing about that in the show. Also, a bit off topic, but can we talk about how awful the circumstances of Jay and Leia getting together were? Sure they developed genuine feelings for each other eventually, but it literally starts with Leia being like “hey, I want my first kiss, and my only option’s Jay. Eh, might as well, better than nothing.”

All of these hopes were crushed in episode four when we find out that not only has Jay had sex, which okay, fine, whatever, but he’s also a player who’s broken multiple girls hearts, and it’s implied that he does this on purpose. So basically Kelso 2.0. Cool. While I do have critiques for the other episodes, I did genuinely enjoy them, whereas I absolutely despise episode four to the point where I hardly even consider it canon. Between the horrible light it painted Jay in and the insensitive and disgusting Menendez brothers joke that made me actually pause the show for a good ten minutes to process it and almost give up on the show completely, episode four was horrendous. When Nikki suggests that Jay has feelings for Leia and actually sees her as a person and not just a sex object, Jay seems genuinely surprised at best, if not disgusted. While him telling Leia in the previous episode that he doesn’t want her to be a meaningless hookup implied that he treated all women with this level of respect, this seems to flip the script to say that he sees only Leia this way, because she’s “different.” Why, because she’s the main character, because she’s a “pure” nerdy virgin, because she’s “not like other girls?” Why is Leia put on a pedestal and treated like she deserves better than other girls whereas the rest aren’t worthy of basic respect? (If this sounds familiar, it’s because this is exactly how Donna was treated in the original series as opposed to every single other girl on the show, particularly Jackie.) Because Leia is “special” she “deserves” to be treated with basic human decency, unlike “other girls,” because fuck them, right? At the rave, we see what could have been a cute moment where Leia and Jay confess their feelings for each other, but instead, Jay takes advantage of her vulnerability and arrogantly declares that he “knew it” when Leia admits her feelings rather than telling her he feels the same way. However it’s hard to hold all of this against Jay considering how out of character this seems for him. Episodes 1-3 paint him as kind and empathetic, whereas episodes 5-10 continue that sort of personality for him, but also turn him into a one note love interest that doesn’t have much else to his character. Episode four Jay literally feels like an entirely different character than the rest of the series.

In either episode four or five, forgive me for not remembering, we meet Serena, who could essentially be replaced with a piece of cardboard and nothing would change. Serena literally only exists to be “the other woman” getting in the way of Jay and Leia’s relationship. While Leia, thankfully, isn’t unkind to her just because she’s with Jay, the writers are. Unlike Leia, apparently Serena doesn’t deserve a happy ending, a good boyfriend, or a shred of respect. She’s older, she dresses in a more conventionally attractive way, and her personality is nonexistent. It’s unclear if Jay *technically* cheated on Serena; while Leia calls her Jay’s girlfriend, it’s important to take into account that Leia is an unreliable narrator and it’s entirely possible that Jay and Serena were just casually going out and not official (especially considering they were just going on their first date a day or two before Leia’s birthday), but it’s also a very real possibility that Jay did cheat on her when he kisses Leia on her birthday. Regardless of if they were official or not, it’s pretty shitty that Jay entirely casts her aside as soon as Leia shows interest. Serena who, right? No seriously, that’s literally what he says. If the roles were reversed and it was Leia he did this to, Jay would be seen as a total asshole, but since it’s Serena, we’re not supposed to care. For my swifties out there, Leia is Betty, Jay is James, and Serena is Augustine - just a “summer thing.” So not only is Jay a “player” and a “man whore” as he’s called by his own friend group, he’s also likely a cheater. Sure, he’s Kelso’s son, but that doesn’t mean he has to be a carbon copy. It’s like the writers copy and pasted Kelso into the 90s, edited a few things, and said “yeah, that’s good enough, no one will be able to tell.”

While this may sound like I hate Jay, I really don’t. In fact, he’s still probably my favorite character in the reboot, although I’m probably a bit biased due to my affections for him from before the show came out (and my eight year long crush on Mace Coronel, but that’s irrelevant.) Jay does prove himself throughout the rest of the season, showing that he does care about Leia and exhibiting empathy his father could never muster, but he still doesn’t feel like his own character. While Kelso habitually cheats on Jackie and then blames her for it, admits to using her for sex and money while she’s 15 and he’s 18, and hounds her into sex until she eventually gives in and says yes so he’ll leave her alone (ie: rape), Jay is genuinely kindhearted and would never do those sorts of things (or at least I hope he wouldn’t, but it wouldn’t shock me if the writers decide to ruin his character in later seasons.) Like Red says when Kitty points out that Jay is better than Michael, the bar isn’t all that high. However, Jay does prove himself to be a good boyfriend who genuinely cares about Leia (I don’t use the word love since their relationship developed so quickly and they’re so young, so it’s unlikely that it’s real love, despite the fact that they believe it is). He exhibits true selflessness throughout the series and continually puts himself in the line of fire (usually from Red) to protect Leia.

Nevertheless, good person or not, Jay doesn’t feel original. He seems to exist only to be Leia’s love interest boy toy. Jay lacks the soul I imagined him to have before watching the show. While it’s nice to see the female characters fleshed out for once, as was very lacking on T70S, the male characters lack dimension in comparison. Leia, Gwen, and Nikki, all have their own personalities, values, and ambitions, whereas Ozzie tends to be the sassy token gay friend (although let’s bffr, none of these new kids are straight, but the writers don’t want to admit it), Jay not only feels like Kelso Lite ™, but as the series progresses, him and Nate seem to morph into basically the same person. Two well intended, yet dumb horndogs who lack depth or any true personality of their own beyond being love interests for their girlfriends and comic relief. Again, I love, love, LOVE Mace Coronel, and have since seeing him on Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn on Nickelodeon, and don’t blame him at all for the way his character is written. Now if you follow my blog, you probably already know that I absolutely adore not only Mace, but also his NRDD costar Aidan Gallagher, who I fell for after seeing him in The Umbrella Academy. However, Mace was the one I had a crush on as a child and it was very exciting to rediscover him when I first found out about T90S. While Aidan’s NRDD character Nicky Harper and TUA character Five Hargreeves share the same cunning spirit, they’re extremely different in most ways and I was incredibly excited to see Mace show this same sort of range on T90S. And I do believe that Mace has that range, but he unfortunately seems to be being typecast, considering Jay basically feels like teenage Dicky Harper in the 90s. Maybe I’m being overdramatic, but I was really hoping for more for Jay’s character and I was slightly disappointed, and I hope he gets fleshed out more and more deeply explored in later seasons.

Thanks for reading my long ass rant lmao. TLDR; I love Jay Kelso (and Mace Coronel) but hate how he was portrayed. Justice for Jay (oh, and for Serena)

Tagging my favorite T70S/T90S blogs for engagement: @thestupidhelmet @lily-267 @thatseventiesbitch @einsteinsugly @that90sshowgoldencouple

[luniviravosshipper]

“The Soul Arcanum” - My Theory on Deep Magic

I know, I’m posting this only hours before the newest season gets released. Talk about bad timing, huh?

But I have seriously been wanting to post this for a long time. Just, you know, been busy lately.

Anyways, it wouldn’t do me much good to post this after the season comes out when it’s probably already revealed what exactly is deep magic and what’s its purpose. So I’m posting it now. Even with the bad timing and everything.

Either way, I’m not really expecting people to see this. All I really want to do here by making this post is to see later on if my theory proves correct. I just want to look back on this in case it does. But even if it doesn’t, I still want to post my thoughts on this just so I can have like, I don’t know, a memory of or something of sorts recording my original thoughts on this topic.

Anyways, let’s just get onto talking about it.

So. Deep magic is kind of odd from what it appears. From the most notable spell we saw within the series, it seems like some sort of form of blood magic, right? At least that’s quite heavily implied here, given how Aaravos indicates how blood is the most important component of this spell.

But… why? Why is it implied here that blood is so necessary to this spell, maybe even to other spells of this type of magic too?

Given that it’s almost a guarantee that deep magic will turn out to be, if anything, the type of magic that all the primal forms of magic stem from, the sort of root to all magic, why would it possibly be based on blood?

Even if it’s not blood based, it’s still odd nonetheless to see that a spell of the deepest form of magic could possibly require blood.

Wouldn’t the use of blood in any type of “real” magic be looked down upon? Especially when other forms of magic that use much more than just the blood of living creatures are so heavily looked down upon?

As put by Lujanne when referring to dark magic, “we don’t call that practice magic”. (Ignore the fact I don’t have a screenshot right now of the quote.)

So what could this type of magic possibly have to do with the use of blood?

This particular deep magic spell shown to us by Aaravos seems to do something similar to dark magic. Taking from other living creatures.

Actually, now that I mention it. Deep magic, from the looks of it, seems oddly similar to dark magic in general.

Why would this type of magic, the root to all other forms of magic, require you to essentially steal from other living things?

Now, I’m not saying that I think dark magic and deep magic are connected remotely. However, it is interesting to see the contrast between their uses simply based off of how little we know about deep magic and yet what information about it the writers have chosen to introduce to us as the audience.

What I’d actually more strongly argue is that perhaps the show is going to go on to make some sort of comparison between the two. And seeing how blood may or may not play a role in this type of magic, and seeing how blood usually plays a more heavier role in dark magic, I can only really think of one way they could compare these two.

Showing that one of these forms of magic takes…

And the other gives or shares…

And this is where my main hypothesis comes in. As contradictory as what I just implied about deep magic being a form of magic that gives or shares seems to be to literally everything else I just said about it. Just let me explain.

I don’t actually think deep magic is blood magic. Not exclusively, at least, which I’ll get to later. It simply doesn’t make sense to me for deep magic to have to do so much with blood, since literally none of the primal forms of magic have anything to do with blood. They’re all based on different philosophies and ways of viewing life, known as the arcanums. And what they’re all actually shown to be is connected to different sources, like the stars, the moon, the sun, the sky, the ocean, and the earth.

So, knowing that they all derive from deep magic, I can only really assume that deep magic has to have a core philosophy, like the other primal forms of magic, that they all just base their own arcanums on. Honestly, the idea of deep magic just being blood magic doesn’t actually make it sound all that deep. So I think the alternative sounds better.

But what could possibly represent something deeper then all the arcanums combined?

I can't help but to think it has something to do with connection.

It would make so much sense if that was just it. Deep magic is about connection. Because that's literally what all the primal forms of magic seem to revolve around. This idea of connecting to something outside of yourself. That's where they all share this commonality.

But it's also much more than that. And I think there was maybe even an indicator of what else it means for deep magic to be about connection in the nightmare Callum received after trying dark magic for the first time. When Callum was first trying to understand the sky arcanum in his dream, Sarai payed him a visit and offered him some wisdom. I think it's relevant here.

I can't help but to think that, although deep magic is the route form of all magic, it must have a source it relates to like the other primal forms of magic. But unlike the primal forms of magic that all connect to external sources, I think deep magic must connect to something internal.

The soul has to be like the ultimate source of magic, right? Deep magic has to come from within. If deep magic is all about connection, then I think deep magic has to come from a source that strives one's need to connect with the world around them. Honestly, what else could deep magic possibly be about? What other source could it connect to?

Connection isn't simply about relating to something outside of yourself, it's also about allowing those things to actually have an effect on you. To reflect, grow, change in relation to the world around you. And how else can you truly connect to an arcanum if you not only learn to understand it but also learn how to actually implement it and accept it into your life?

(I'm not trying to sound philosophical or preachy here, so sorry about that lol. I'm so tired right now, I'm absolutely brain dead writing this. I'm just trying to explain this as coherently as I can with my depleting energy levels and in my current mental state so I might be over-explaining some things.)

I think this could easily explain too how Aaravos was so quickly able to learn all the different arcanums. He understood his own self, his soul, and his own connection with himself must have allowed him to connect with other things.

So, ultimately, I think this is the only way I can really rationalize how deep magic can be considered a form of blood magic and have the primal forms of magic still stem from it. Because it’s not exclusively a form of blood magic. It’s just that blood, likely passed down and shared by familial lineage, is a physical form of a connection. And connection doesn’t necessarily have to be just mental or emotional. This is likely why the spell that Aaravos was going to offer Viren to use to save his life requires the blood of his child. I kind of imagine that whatever Aaravos had planned for him, it would be comparable to receiving a blood transfusion or organ donation in real life and Aaravos just thought he could create a child that shares his genes and stuff so that child could be compatible with his blood type or whatever.

This is also why I can’t help but to think that Ezran’s ability to understand and communicate with animals is actually a form of deep magic. Because what else could it be? If deep magic is really all about connection, then it would just make far too much sense then not for Ez’s power to come from it. I mean, he can literally see through Zym’s eyes and communicate with him telepathically over very long distances.

Also, and I don’t know if these are confirmed or not to actually be forms of Star magic and I’m just not aware of it, but I’ve always thought that Aaravos being able to posses Callum’s body and transfer magic through Viren could be types of deep magic.

Anyways, I was going to write more explaining how I've seen other people suggest that the star arcanum is actually the one that's all about connection and how I disagreed with that and thought the idea of being without limitations and having an infinitude amount of options and possibilities was more fitting for it, but I'm wayyy too tired to do that. Also it's just like two hours till the new season drops. And if I start typing up my thoughts on the star arcanum and what it could possibly be I would never shut up in time for me to get this finished before the new season is released. So yeah. This is it. This is my theory. I'll come back to this post to see if I was even somewhat right or not.

[mikalara-dracula]

⚔️ Shu & Reiji fencing hcs—

Warning: 18+ content below; don't read if you're a minor and aren't comfortable with this topic and slight NSFW. This is a fictional work and should not be taken seriously.

Caution: Unfortunately, Tumblr has a history of admins quarreling over completing carbon copy asks due to users sending the same request(s) to multiple admins, thus, resulting in unintentional plagiarism. With this, please DO NOT send the same request to multiple blogs as it can cause unintended plagiarism discord to other blogs across Tumblr. The word “plagiarism” stems from the early 17th-century Latin word, “plagiarius,” meaning “kidnapper.” So please, do not send in the same request to multiple blogs and make admins appear to be “kidnapping” other people’s work when it isn’t their intention. If this is to occur with any of my posts, please contact me so we can work something out.

I suppose if anyone’s been in the DL fandom long enough, they’ll know that both Shu and Reiji have swordsmanship skills under their belts.

So @liannelara-dracula and I thought we’d make hcs about this concept.

So here we go. :)

Question: Who do you think is a better swordfighter? We'd love to know your thoughts. :)

References to fencing:

Parry positions

Sword types

Target areas

- Shu -

⚔️ He’s unfairly skilled and leans more towards having a natural talent for this.

⚔️ He makes it look so effortless too, which is really infuriating to opponents, especially if Reiji’s his opponent.

⚔️ Shu probably started training when he was around nine or ten in physical age (it’s hard to tell how old everyone is due to them being vampires in DL).

⚔️ Beatrix thought it would be necessary for her precious heir to be skilled in fencing since it is a royal-like hobby/skill.

⚔️ Plus, what’s a prince without swordsmanship skills?

⚔️ So with this, Shu followed a pretty paced schedule everyday regarding training—two hours everyday after he finished his studies.

⚔️ In fact, sometimes Beatrix would push him harder than the instructor would since she expected so much from him. This was mostly to flex and show off to Cordelia that Shu was better than her triplets.

⚔️ Beatrix was quite strict about his training and there were no exceptions for him to miss it.

⚔️ He usually wouldn’t as a kid, but as he got older, he started to skip or find excuses to not attend these training sessions.

⚔️ It eventually got to the point where Beatrix found out about his ‘slackery’ and scolded him for it time after time again since he persisted to do it.

⚔️ And you can best bet that these arguments always encompassed the fact of him being the “heir” and that he was supposed to “act like one.”

⚔️ But of course, Shu had tactics of his own to counter his mom’s attacks by spouting one excuse to the next.

⚔️ To cover his ass well enough, Shu at one point even came up with the excuse that he just didn’t like the teacher he had for fencing.

⚔️ So with this, Beatrix quickly found him a new teacher who also happened to have a daughter that assisted him in teaching.

⚔️ There were times where the instructor asked his daughter to be Shu’s opponent whenever he had to step out of the sparring room or just to give Shu a different opponent.

⚔️ And with this, there was quite an attraction between the instructor’s daughter and Shu—all that attraction building from distant glances and the tension rising with each clash of their swords as they dueled, lust conspiring heavily as they met face to face, their swords being the only barrier preventing their desire.

⚔️ Okay, enough with the poetry—through all that tension they ended up sleeping together.

⚔️ They started to pursue each other for a while in secret as a fling, but that was all until Beatrix found out of her son’s sexual escapades and fired the instructor and his daughter as a result.

⚔️ Anyways, going back to his fencing style.

⚔️ His favorite sword to use is probably an Epee blade because he's able to score points by having the tip of the blade touch any part of his opponent. It's just easier and it doesn't limit him.

⚔️ However, he does have to deal with the fact that it is the heaviest type of sword in fencing, but it doesn't bother him.

⚔️ Plus his vampire strength does help so it's probably not as heavy to him compared to a human. He just prefers to not have limitations when it comes to scoring against an opponent.

⚔️ Will fight dirty if he's fencing his s/o or one of his brothers.

⚔️ Like, he'll be a total ass.

⚔️ If he's sparing his s/o and they don't know shit about fencing, he'll make up rules about how to spar.

⚔️ Such as telling them they missed or that their attack didn't count when it did, or he'll point out something that'll totally distract them.

⚔️ "Oh look! A bird." He'd say to throw them off guard.

⚔️ "What? Where?" And here, he'd take the opportunity to score a point through them being distracted, or even come towards them, cup their cheeks and pull them in for an unexpected kiss.

⚔️ Or if he really wants to be an ass, if by any chance his s/o turns around when they're distracted, he'll either have the tip of the sword touch their ass or he'll just come up behind them and clutch it.

⚔️ Loves pulling dirty moves on his s/o too, such as tripping them and then catching them before they fall, just so he can have the excuse of having them in his arms.

⚔️ He sometimes likes to practice fencing outside in the mansion’s courtyard/garden just to change scenery or even by the lake.

⚔️ Has ended up sparring some of his opponents to the point that they fell into the lake. And Reiji just so happened to be in this position once lol.

⚔️ His fencing style is a rather unusual and unpredictable style but it happens to work for him.

⚔️ Always likes to leave himself open for his opponent to strike, but this is honestly a big trap.

⚔️ He likes to make it look like he's being careless by being open when in reality he's not.

⚔️ So the minute his opponent tries to score, he immediately parries, moves in an unexpected direction, and strikes.

⚔️ Essentially, he likes to take on his opponent in unexpected ways in order to score and it works every time.

⚔️ A signature move of Shu's is probably thrust (oh lord, good luck not getting any lewd ideas there lmao).

⚔️ Anyways, this is essentially one of basic moves that allow one to launch towards their opponent aggressively, so kinda like a powerful attack.

⚔️ He may like to fool his opponents, but beware that when he attacks he goes hard, like really hard.

⚔️ His favorite parry position is probably neuvieme since it allows him to block attacks coming from above and potentially make his opponent lose their grip on their sword since it's vulnerable due to being up high.

- Reiji -

⚔️ Tbh, Reiji didn’t start fencing out of will or because of Beatrix pushing him.

⚔️ Sad as it was, he only started to prove a point—that he could surpass Shu in something.

⚔️ So with this, Reiji began his training and strove to be better than his older counterpart.

⚔️ And tbh, Reiji sucked at first and found himself having a really hard time with fencing.

⚔️ It took him a good while to establish a grip he was comfortable with whereas Shu held it a certain way from the start and never changed since he found it to his liking.

⚔️ Reiji studied each movement piece by piece and really took his time into not only memorizing movements, but also into calculating how his opponents would move based on how they looked.

⚔️ Don’t ask me how he did that.

⚔️ Because Reiji sought to be better than Shu, he challenged himself to master the foil sword, which one can only score points if the tip of the sword touches an opponent's torso.

⚔️ Definitely not as easy as the Epee sword that Shu prefers, but foil swords are the lightest in fencing, so there's a plus.

⚔️ And you can best bet he has pushed and tried over and over to surpass Shu in regard to skill—down to every little detail.

⚔️ But no matter how hard he tried, he never felt satisfied, especially since Beatrix always preferred Shu and found his fencing skills to be better.

⚔️ If he’s sparing Shu, he does not go easy on him at all.

⚔️ Like, he doesn’t hold back.

⚔️ And there was a time when both of them went at it.

⚔️ The match started out fine, but that was until they started smack talking each other when one scored a point against the other and then the smack reverted to bringing shit up about the past and then it officially turned ugly.

⚔️ It went from intense sword clashing, to slashing each other’s uniforms and then dropping the swords and resorting to fists.

⚔️ It got so bad that it took two directeurs to pry them apart, and it took more than one try for the directeurs to be successful.

⚔️ As for fighting style, Reiji is pretty predictable, but bear in mind that this mf is fast---lighting fast.

⚔️ Like, his opponent barely has time to think about what move he'll pull next because he's so fast.

⚔️ Reiji loves lunging--it's probably his favorite but also signature move since he spent so much time mastering it. He loves this move because it allows him to launch at his opponent and show what he's capable of.

⚔️ As for parry positions, he likes getting into pronation prime since it allows him a great amount of protection from getting struck by his opponent.

⚔️ Also likes using quarte when parrying because it allows him to block his opponent in a different direction and gives him more control when doing so.

⚔️ Reiji doesn’t give his opponent a break when sparing. He so unfair.

⚔️ Like if his s/o is sparing him, he’ll literally keep poking them with the tip of the sword just to tease them and will just laugh as they tell him to stop.

⚔️ Fuckin’ ass.

[t4tduncney]

please tell me how duncney realised they were trans or just any head canons in general!!!!!

thank you sm for this question i have been looking for an excuse to share these lol continuing on topics like dysphoria, child abuse and HEAVY transphobia will be apparent so please be warned

ok so for Courtney there was never really a moment of realization, she was extremely insistent on being a girl the moment puberty started for her and even before this she was aware of her discomfort as being seen as a young boy and not the opposite. Courtney was allowed on puberty blockers and estrogen very young compared to the usual age that people medically transition at, however while this was extremely fortunate for her it also came with its own issues surrounding the manipulation of her mother that sours her situation when you learn the truth about it. Courtney's parents are divorced and her mother had full custody of her growing up. Her mother, despite the fact she allowed her to go on these hormones and outwardly "supported her" she never saw Courtney as a woman. the ONLY reason she even allowed her to transition is so she would become even more dependent on her mother and for her to feel as if she "owes her mother" something for not forcing her through a puberty that was wrong. courtneys mother, rather then seeing her as a woman, sees her as a failed male that depends on HER to feed "his" delusions, in her eyes shes taken advantage of courtneys "weakened state" to manipulate her into doing only what SHE wants her to do all of the time. in courtneys eyes, she sees nothing wrong with her mother and their relationship, and is extremely unaware of the manipulation shes endured throughout her life (if you want me to get into more details i can but wont in this post)

Duncan on the other hand, while he was never manipulated to the extent that courtney was, gained NO support from his parents. He also discovered he was trans right when puberty started and was extremely open and insistent that he was a man. his parents had always had issues with him regarding "his behavior" and this was like the very last straw. with his dad, there was never a moment where they could bond or talk in a civil manner, it was constant screaming and shouting. however, his dad never hit him, which unfortunately sparked an extremely misguided belief in duncan that his dad physically taking it out on him like he does with his brothers would be more preferred as in his eyes, the day that happens, implies his dad has given in and sees him as a man. (this is WRONG. do not think like this) his mother on the other hand had a slightly better relationship with him, however her transphobia lay in the belief that it was a choice he was taking in an act of rebellion. she tried to plead with him to stop “pretending” and to revert back to the “young girl he was before his onset of gender dysphoria”, and he almost did, for his mother, but living that lie was absolutely unbearable. from having no real support from his parents, he opted to DIY his HRT (if you don’t know what this is referring to, please look it up)

so for both of them they never really experienced “repressing” or having to come to a realisation as they were both young and didn’t fully understand their feelings just yet. but i think these two headcanons play off each other quite well and i think they don’t fall suppperrrr far from what we know about their backstories in canon. anyways here’s some more general headcanons along the lines of their identities;

- both courtney and duncan are heavily dysphoric and have been living stealth for ages (courtney however has been living stealth for longer as she had the ability to pass earlier) but it gets more bearable as they grow and change as people, duncan learns he doesnt have to be overly masculine and preparate harmful misogynistic rhetoric to feel comfortable in his masculinity, and courtney learns to let her walls down and allow people to get close to her and not being bothered if they see her as "weird". - each of them being trans is something they learn about each other later on in the relationship, but after they do their bond grows immensely. at first they both individually suffer with the thought that "being trans is going to get in the way of this relationship and it will never last" and of course it DOESNT go away after learning about each other situations (especially since they have very different experiences as a trans man and a trans woman) but it gets much better now that they have the support of each other :))) - cant think of any more hcs rn sigh

[rou-luxe]

heavily belated introduction post

resident alfons kisser with a terrible sleep schedule dms are open for pretty much anything. but don't be a creep

go follow @silkkorchid she's very cool <3 @mrssylvatica <- fanfic and sheet music

careful I'm very socially awkward and I will fight for the facts...

what kind of content?

- multifandom: mainly twst, ikevil - fantheories / analyses, memes, shitposts... - ocs someday...

who am I?

rou? (they/them preferred) - 🐬 chronically online jade leech kisser - 🪞 alfons enjoyer... - procrastinating artist - intp-t // 4w5 (459) // sp/sx // melancholic (does this mean I'm an idia kinnie)

tags I use? personal (in general they will have "rou" prefix so it's just my posts if you search them...): #rouanswers - answering an ask #roubrainrot - (I brainrot immensely) #routheories - theories* #rouletmecook - (rouart was taken 💀) #roufood - either I cook or talk about food. mostly talking about food

#roudead - piano #roustorytime - irl experiences (varied) usually extremely off topic * these posts tend to be REALLY long but it would be appreciated if my efforts could be recognized 😭

tags - oc brainrot

misc oc tag will be: #rouocs

twst ocs: 📫 #yuu-kanaeru - yuusona 🪞⚜ (#host : 🪞⚜) - sirius #gilles-barbe-de-cloches - gilles (we don't talk about him. you'll never know who gilles really is. have fun finding what anon he is)

ikevil ocs maybe?: - Elsie Juniper (WIP) #rou elsie juniper TBA original - The Artificial Darlinghouse: - general: #rou the artificial darlinghouse - oc masterlist TBA original - Roulette Luxe (help I need a better name): ❄️ #rou henrietta peregrine - Henrietta Peregrine 🌈 #rou clyde chandler - Clyde Chandler 🍷 #rou dorius verlaine - Dorius Verlaine 🐦‍⬛ #rou branwen levine - Branwen Levine

TOYHOUSE

current blogs (last updated May 7th, 2024):

- @rou-luxe (main; shitpost; you are here)

- @mrssylvatica (fanfic, sheet music)

- @nrchostclub-official (🪞⚜ host) - @nrc-delivery (inactive yuusona? 📫)

brainrotting fandom list + favorites

- Twisted Wonderland EN ID: TBA - Deuce, Jade, Azul, Rook, Cater, Vil, Jamil

- Ikeseries (Vil > Pri > Vamp). Ikevil EN ID: P4C2AQXNF

- Alfons, Elbert, Liam, Roger, Clavis, Silvio, Shakespeare - paths completed (in order): Clavis (romantic), Shakespeare (romantic), Silvio (romantic), William Rex (romantic) - in progress paths: Harrison Gray, Gilbert (against my will)

this post was last updated May 19th, 2024

[trickstercaptain]

indie captain jack sparrow, private, plot heavy, low activity, primarily trilogy & tpof based. est. 08/14. rebooted 02/20. written by lottie ( she / her ), gmt, 25+

         CAPTAIN JACK  ♢  MODERN JACK  ♢  VERSES  ♢  MAINS / EXCLUSIVES

my worldbuilding & portrayal are heavily affiliated with : hangtherules / villainmade + thecodekeeper / shadowcovcn + reddhaed + musecraft

                          other links :   MEME TAG  ♢  META                              please read the rules below the cut before interacting!

• This blog is very chilled, selective and low activity, meaning that I only write with mutuals for my own state of mind. I work and have a busy life outside of tumblr which takes priority, so I cannot write with everyone, plus I do practice mains and exclusives — although I am picky about this.

• A couple of notes about my portrayal of Jack: I draw on both movie & book canon, primarily the trilogy and Ann Crispin’s The Price of Freedom, the latter of which concerns Jack’s past, although I do borrow sparingly from other sources across extended canon. He is much more than the witty rogue with a fondness for rum that he is often dismissed as and I have been writing him long enough to develop him far beyond the scope of his canon; I therefore ask that you please respect this and my reasons for being picky when it comes to incorporating certain ‘canon’ established in Dead Men Tell No Tales in particular.

• I have also been around the block when it comes to Jack; I have been writing him for more than nine years now, and in that time I have replied to many, many generic, non-plotted starters where muses approach Jack in a tavern to ask to join his crew/ask him for help etc. These kind of spontaneous threads just do not spark joy or excite Jack's muse any longer and therefore I cannot guarantee that you will receive a prompt response ( or a response at all ) if you throw one my way. So what I am saying effectively is that I am primarily plotting based here — the more you plot with me, even if it's just initially to establish a jumping off point, the more likely Jack's flighty af muse will stick and we can write all of the wonderful things together!

• I do not care to see call out posts or any other kind of drama. I will unfollow and potentially block if I see it on my dash: I am here to write, not to engage in tumblr politics.

• I am multiship and Jack is bisexual, however I tend to be picky about shipping — ic and ooc chemistry is key, and just because Jack is a promiscuous muse, do not assume that means that he will jump into bed or emotionally invest with absolutely anyone. Likewise, just because Jack is a certified flirt, do not take that to mean I am forcing a ship on you or your muse. He flirts with everyone.

• Usual Tumblr etiquette applies. Please don’t godmod, don’t rush me on replies as I am very slow, please make sure meme replies are transferred over to a new post etc etc.

• NSFW may appear from time to time, as well as certain dark topics considering that Jack is a pirate and there are potentially triggering events within his canon, such as child abuse. I do not have any triggers myself, but I will certainly try to tag anything particularly sensitive that may appear on this blog. As for smut, I write it pretty infrequently but only with partners I’m close to on an out of character level.

• If we are mutuals, I absolutely want to write with you! Hitting up my IMs for plotting is likely the easiest way to get something going with me, but sending a meme or liking a starter/interaction call absolutely works too!

• I’m Lottie, she/hers, 25+, GMT timezone. I’ve been writing on tumblr since 2014 and I can also be found on my other blogs if not here:        MULTI + SCOOPS KIDS

• I do not have any association with Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean, or Johnny Depp. Any ignorant and uneducated hate towards my faceclaim will gain an instant unfollow from me and, out of respect to him as a human being, as well as for my own personal comfort, I will not write or interact with any blog who uses Amber Heard as a faceclaim.

[dragoncxv360]

Aight, makin a new pinned post

I'm sorry for the lack of image IDs on most of my art, I just don't really have the spoons to write them most of the time

Any nsfw posts will now go on a sideblog. Suggestive stuff will still go here (with tags of course)

Comissions are open

Here is the commission sheets

(Drawing requests are closed unless I specifically ask for requests)

You can find my art on here under the tags my art or ellery's art

Also also, asks are welcome! I'd love to chat about stuff! Keep it sfw and free of gore tho please (also I usually have anon asks off in case of harrassment so sorry about that for the people who get anxious off anon)

Update 2/7/24, asks are going to be off until further notice because of the fucking spam bots

Any fnafics I post will be on my ao3 (I will list them under the cut) Sadly due to ai bullshit I have locked them to registered users only. (Sunflowers and Stardust is cross posted on ffn but it is the only one I have cross posted for the time being so if you see any of my other stories on there, they were not posted by me and are therefore stolen)

Currently looking into other options for my stickers since I’ve decided I don’t wanna use teespring anymore. You can support me on kofi

Also I have a few poems and stuff posted here under the my writing tag (also under the ellery's writing tag)

Info post on my security sun au

Info post on You're Everything I'm Not

I have my ocs tagged by their name (eg. All my art of Pinky is tagged as Pinky Roth) so it's easier to find other art of them. I also have the tag you're everything I'm not for ocs from that story

Do not repost, trace, or edit my art. Do not repost or edit my writing. This includes translations and dubbing/narrating my art or fics. I especially do not want reposts with all this AI bullshit data scraping.

Please ask before using my art as a pfp or banner or anything like that

(if it was made for you you can use it as a pfp or banner)

Using my art as a phone/tablet/computer wallpaper is totally ok though

Do not fucking feed my art or writing to ai, you will be blocked and blacklisted from my comissions and anything else involving me on sight. This includes using my art, writing, and/or characters in chat ai bots, it's not ok and never will be.

Do not roleplay my ocs or use my character art and/or writing/worldbuilding for your own story or dnd character or campaign.

Also I don't currently feel comfortable with other people writing fics for my aus (or ocs). I know most people are ok with that but I just currently am not quite 100% ok with it

Making fanart of my aus and/or ocs/stories is totally ok, just please keep it sfw and free of heavy gore. I am aware my fics and/or art often includes such topics but I'm not currently comfortable with other people drawing those things for me. If you would like more specific rules for my characters, you can check my artfight

If you are heavily inspired by my story/stories for one of your own fics (by heavily inspired I don't mean stuff like wanting to write a genderfluid Sun too or even wanting to write a fic with a similar plot such as a fic with Sun dying and Moon dealing with the grief of that loss, I mean stuff that copies multiple and very specific aspects of my stories) please send an ask or a dm to me, I'd be happy to discuss what is and isn't comfortable so that we can work something out. Please note though that I may say something is too heavily inspired to be comfortable for me. I'd most likely be happy to help give you pointers on changes you can make so it's comfortable for me though.

Fics are listed in the order they’ve been posted (based on the first chapter for multichapter fics). Please look to ao3 for reference to which au each fic belongs to and what order they’re in (they’re listed in chronological order unless specified otherwise but you don’t need to read them in that order or read all the fics in the series)

Blood and Oil

Explicit

Major character death, graphic depictions of violence

Sun x Moon (past, sort of), Moon x Monty (there are other background ships but these are the main ones)

Incomplete, ongoing

This fic deals with or eventually will deal with: death, murder, grief, ptsd, trauma, nightmares, hallucinations, self harm, dissisociation, and toxic relationships and coping habits. It will also deal with sex and sexual themes, including sexual hallucinations. While this fic will deal with complicated feelings around sex and self worth in relation to sex, it will NOT deal with rape/non con. Please use caution when reading this story

Moon is patrolling one night when he comes across an intruder with more violent intentions. Things go downhill fast and just when he thinks he's going to die and this is the end, Sun sacrifices herself and saves Moon. Now left in a world without his lifelong partner and other half, Moon must figure out how to survive alone.

Good Girl

Explicit

No archive warnings apply

Sun x Moon, Sun x Moon x Monty

Complete, 1 chapter

Wordcount: 5,081

Sun accidentally calls Moon a good girl during daycare hours and Moon likes it more than he thought he would

Don't Cry, Firefly

Explicit

No archieve warnings apply

Sun x Moon

Complete, 3/3 chapters

Wordcount: 10,904

He felt his face heat up as he realized what was going on. He was about to walk away to give Sun some privacy when he heard them whimper, "M-Moonlight, I need you."

Moon froze. It wasn't the first time he'd walked in on Sun masturbating, but it was the first time he'd ever heard them say his name during it.

Claws and Teeth

Explicit

No archive warnings apply

Sundrop x Moondrop x Eclipse x Nova (oc)

Complete, 1 chapter

Wordcount: 4,447

Eclipse couldn't believe how he'd ended up in this position. Everything had started as a normal night with his partners, watching a movie and playing games, and now they were making out with him on the couch and biting him.

Eclipse has a fun night with his partners in a role he doesn't normally take, the sub

Stitch Me Up

Explicit

No Archieve Warnings Apply

Eclipse x Nova (oc)

Complete, 1 chapter

Wordcount: 1,565

After being sent to the hospital for a bad panic attack that resulted in self harm, Nova comforts Eclipse with some soft sex

This fic mentions depression, anxiety, and self harm. Please don’t read it if you are sensitive to those topics

Sunflowers and Stardust

Mature

Graphic depictions of violence

Sun x Moon, other relationships to be added

Incomplete, ongoing

The main fic for my security Sun au

Starting a few months after the virus has been fixed, this fic will explore Sun and Moon's future over the next 11 years, and delve into what the prior 10 years were like for them. There will be lots of shenanigans and lots of self discovery as they grow and heal. The glamrocks, Foxy, and DJ will be in the fic but won't be focused on as much as Sun and Moon. There will also be lots of relationships explored in this fic as most of the characters are poly in some way. I will update the relationship tags as needed.

Any smut will be contained to separate fics so that people who don't like that stuff don't have to read it. However, there are discussions of Moon’s sex repulsion and Sun’s lack thereof, meaning there are vague mentions of how Sun feels. There will not be any explicit sex or masturbation scenes in the fic though, merely discussions of boundaries on these sorts of things.

Making Starlings

Explicit

No Archive Warnings Apply

Sundrop x Moondrop x Eclipse x Nova (oc)

Complete, 3 chapters

Wordcount: 9,941

Moondrop plans a fun night of movies and sex with their other partners, Nova and Eclipse, for Sundrop, but gets worked up before the movies even begin.

This fic will deal with the begining of pregnancy in later chapters so be aware of that

Why Am I So Hot?

Explicit

No Archieve Warnings Apply

Sun x Moon x Monty, Sun x Moon

Complete, Chapters 3/3

Wordcount: 6,747

Sun goes into heat and Moon and Monty help him

Chapter 2 is Moon's heat, chapter 3 is Monty's heat

Sometimes Things Start With Love And All We Get Is What's Left Over

Explicit

No Archieve Warnings Apply

Sun x Moon, Sun and Moon and reader (platonic, not romantic or sexual)

Incomplete, ongoing

Fantasy au where Sun and Moon run an odds and ends shop and meet y/n when they come in looking for lavender. Moon is instantly smitten and Sun teases his partner endlessly about it.

Lune and Moon

Explicit

No Archive Warnings Apply

Sun x Moon, Moon x Monty, Moon x Moon

Chapters 2/3

Warning: contains spoilers for the end of Blood and Oil

Completely non canon thing where the two different versions of the security sun au cast meet and both Moons fall for each other

Lune is the Moon from Blood and Oil, she's transitioned and changed her name

Language, Darling

Explicit

No Archive Warnings Apply

Sun x Moon, Sun x Moon x Eclipse

Complete, 1 chapter

Wordcount: 3,011

Eclipse gets worked up after Sun and Moon tickle it and they end up fucking it

Wreck and Recovery

Explicit

Graphic Depictions of Violence, Rape/Non-Con

Eclipse x Nova (oc), past Eclipse x Monty

Complete, 2 chapters

Wordcount: 4,633

The first chapter does not deal with rape, the second chapter does. Please heed the tags as the second chapter is violent.

A prequel of sorts to the Organic/Recovery au's current fics, explaining Eclipse's past with Monty and initial relationship with Nova

(Also, I shouldn't really have to say this but no I don't condone this shit, and this is likely the only time I'll write it actually happening instead of it being an attempt and being stopped)

Aftermath

Explicit

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Eclipse x Nova (oc)

Complete, 1 chapter

Wordcount: 2,460

I wanted to write a bit more detail about the aftermath of Wreck and Recovery so I wrote this

CW: mentions of past abuse and mentions of past rape

Set 3 or so months after Wreck and Recovery, Eclipse and Nova are working through the complex emotions they're both feeling and trying to talk to each other about new boundaries

And I'll Love You Softly

Explicit

No Archieve Warnings Apply

Eclipse x Nova (oc) x Sundrop x Moondrop

Complete, 1 chapter

Wordcount: 9,148

“Did you wake up like this?” he repeated his question from earlier.

They nodded. “Y-yeah. I was really hot and—ohhh,” they moaned as their clit slid at the perfect angle across his thigh, “a-and really horny,” they finished. “Nngh, just wanna be bred,” they whined, wiggling their hips in circles.

He frowned, brows furrowed in a mix of confusion and concern. “It's almost like you're in—” he cut off, eyes going wide. “Oh…” he said quietly. “I…didn't know that would happen.”

“Th-that what would happen?” they asked, unable to stop the whining building up in their throat at the spike of anxiety and confusion coursing through them.

He bit his lip, blushing and looking away. “Y-you're in heat,” he finally said, cupping their cheek in his hand as he glanced back up at them.

...

Eclipse goes into a pseudo heat

I also have a handful of short stories that I wrote in like 2019 on there

[introject-culture]

Sorry if this goes against the blog rules, but you said you took “Am I plural” asks. I talk to myself often, and have in depth conversations with myself, I also heavily personified my intrusive thoughts to the point where I’m not sure if there’s another person in my head, or if they’re just personified intrusive thoughts.

I don’t think I have any trauma. I know it’s possible to be plural without it, but I haven’t undergone any kind of therapy for that sort of things. I only learned about plurality recently. Before that, there was one case where I felt like I wasn’t exactly “myself”. I was still conscious, but I felt like something else was moving my hands. My therapist called that dissacoiting, but could that be someone else fronting? I don’t many any cases of that happening before, and the ones that I do remember were just minor things.

Again, sorry if this goes against the blog themes, I’m just questioning if I might be plural or not and wanted some pointers.

Hello! No worries, not against the blog rules! (This is pretty much what we meant by that—anyone questioning whether or not they’re plural is welcome to ask for advice or help with figuring it out <3)

So, first off, we can’t say “yep, you’re plural” or “nope, you’re a singlet” since plurality is a very vast experience! So don’t take this as a fact—just consider it.

From what we’ve learned, hosts don’t usually hold trauma memories—and I feel it’s worthwhile to say that extreme and/or prolonged stress can count as trauma (if you wanna get more specific, “stressgenic” is what we’ve seen some systems use for that origin.)

The host used to just refer to us switching or co-fronting with him as dissociation, as it felt nearly the same as how others described just dissociating, so we personally feel that the feeling you described are switches.

We’d certainly recommend trying to reach out to your potential headmates more.

Do you feel like it’s you replying—as in, do you make a conscious effort to continue these conversations with yourself as a hypothetical different person, or does it feel like another person is actually talking back?

While on that topic, do they ever speak on their own, or only when spoken to? Like, let’s say you’re watching a show—does one of them comment on it with something you don’t entirely agree with or that you wouldn’t necessarily think on your own?

Also, treating yourself like you are a system/plural seems to help. In our experience, we didn’t feel entirely safe going “hey man, we’re real!!” to our host until he mentioned questioning whether or not he was a system in a post on here, haha.

Honestly, if you feel that your/y’all’s experiences make you feel like you’re plural, you can call yourself plural. And if you’re wrong or don’t like using “plural” to describe yourself? You don’t have to keep using it! (And, honestly, we think that saying you were wrong about something is pretty brave, if that makes you/y’all feel any better about it if that ends up being your situation ♡)

Again, we can’t guarantee anything—we don’t live in your brain, after all! But we think you should definitely consider the possibility!

We wish you luck with figuring it out, anon ♡

— 🩵 Cleo & 🧵 Nico